


A Nocturnal Vacation

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Dragaera - Steven Brust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-20
Updated: 2006-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 02:26:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1626638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Story by Lavode</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Nocturnal Vacation

**Author's Note:**

> Soon to be finished.
> 
> Written for Gloria Mundi

 

 

I don't usually sleep. For one thing, I often have too much to accomplish that is more or less impossible to do while dreaming, and for another, it's difficult to force my mind to sit still. There are other ways to let it rest. Vlad recommends klava.  
This time, it was sleep I wanted.  
Apparently I hadn't forgotten how, because I started out in bed, then found myself standing in a field. The soil was scorched bare, with the occasional tuft of former grass that crunched underfoot. Not just a field; a battlefield, a pretty generic one.  
Then, suddenly, there was another woman, and my hand went to my hip - sheer reflex, or perhaps muscle memory. The Necromancer didn't react.

"Is your business here important?"

It might have been, once, but not now. "No."

"I have information that I think may interest you."

"Then share it with me." What I enjoy least about spending time with her kind is not that they don't seem to understand time or the concept of hurrying up, nor is it the occasional suspicion that they do it on purpose. It's the feeling that I can't hide my impatience, as if they saw right through me; and my nature has never been trusting enough for that, even with friends.

She looked around the half-solid landscape of my dream, as if deciding how to phrase her message. Then she said, "I believe that a door has been opened, and I can't see Verra."

Whether Verra had opened that "door" herself or somehow been taken through it, it must be closed. The Goddess's disappearance was secondary, but left the question of how the two events were connected. Whatever that connection turned out to be, it must be reason enough to get out of bed.

"Shall we meet?"

"We are meeting now," she told me. "No one sees us."

I somehow managed to keep my tone even. "If you cannot close that door by yourself, it may be that we can do it together. Come to Dzur Mountain, and I'll try to bring Aliera and Morrolan here."

We went our separate ways; that is to say, she disappeared, I woke up.

Aliera was with me the second after I told her to come, showing no signs of ill humor at being dragged out of bed.

"I do not mind at all." That seemed to be an understatement; she was smiling to herself in a rather secretive way, and her eyes were bright green. "You didn't give me time to try it with Pathfinder, but I can do it now."

With no further ado, she sat down and drew the weapon - the Great Weapon - and leaned it against her knees, both hands closed tightly around the hilt. Her head sank against her chest, as if asleep, though if I was unable to search for a missing goddess while asleep, it didn't seem likely that she could.

The darkness seemed to shimmer around the black blade like air on a hot day, and Aliera's hair looked very fair in contrast. She might not care that much for her mother, but the Goddess' disappearance should not make her smile. It was possible that she knew more about it than she was telling me, but if that were the case, why let me see her smile?  
She could not have the power to destroy a goddess or force her to leave or hide. Yet she was Verra's daughter, and it was just possible that her mother, goddess of caprice, might choose her for a hiding place. I couldn't help glancing at her fingers, but there was nothing unusual about them.  
Iceflame had many uses, but locating things - sifting through the different kinds of reality - was not what it did best, and the Necromancer had already failed in her attempts to find Verra.  
Pathfinder was Aliera's weapon and would not do my bidding even if I could take it from her, something I wasn't eager to try. It seemed as if asking her was my best hope.

"Are you the Goddess?"

"I am her daughter." She looked up at me, no longer smiling. "May I continue to try to find my mother, please?"

Morrolan appeared with the Necromancer, and I asked them to keep their comments telepathic.

*Do you see Verra now?*

*No*, the Necromancer replied after some thought. Well. That meant the problem was still unsolved, but it also meant that we didn't have to dissemble from Aliera, or she from us.

*I tried to contact her before coming here, repeatedly. She has no reason not to answer that I am aware of,* Morrolan said, sounding miffed. There was, in fact, one reason she might not want to answer even her favorite worshippers, and that was the fact that she was Verra; but if, if she was simply being herself, Aliera should have found her by now.

Every time I find myself in that type of situation, I miss Vlad. Even if he couldn't have helped - which he might - he would have made me smile, or at least given me something to do, such as tell him to shut up.

The Necromancer stood with her head slumped forward, in much the same position as Aliera; she wasn't making the air shimmer, but it felt as if it should be.

*You cannot close it without my help*, I told her. My patience was slipping regrettably.

She lifted her head slowly, gazing straight through me; this was, I presumed, what she meant when she said she was unable to "see" Verra. Perhaps she didn't see me, either.

*The door has opened further. Where is the Easterner?*

*We can't find him now, and they should not be able to, either.*

*I think they are trying,* she said.

Morrolan claimed his witchcraft was useless for speaking to Vlad, but he should be able to find him within a few hours. The  
obvious place to search was Adrilankha, but that was the last place he was likely to be. We knew that; the Jenoine presumably did not.  
They, or whatever person or thing they had sent to look for him, would only find the Jhereg. And maybe Cawti and her son.

 

 

 


End file.
